This invention relates to novel means for persons to utilize multiple playing cards while playing games such as Bingo which employ such cards, and in particular to peelable releasably adhesive boards for mounting such cards, including means for replenishing the release or adhesive property of such boards.
In the practice of Bingo, players typically acquire multiple numbers of cards, at times ten or twenty or more, then carefully align them in convenient view and proximity on a game table that accommodates numerous other layers. During play of the game, the individual players rapidly scan each letter category for each called number that appears on each of his/her game cards in each letter category.
Handling large numbers of game cards requires affixing them in some manner to avoid inadvertent disruption or skewing of the cards from their intended positions, such as by contact with clothing, bumping the game table, and the like. Typically, Bingo players will use more-or-less fast-drying glues applied from dispensers to affix the game cards directly onto a paper cover overlaying the table surface before play of the game commences. This practice serves to avoid inadvertent misplacement or displacement of game cards at inopportune moments during play. It does not allow replacement of one or more cards to a new position, nor does this allow convenient rapid, simultaneous removal of all markers after each game. In addition, no means is supplied to avoid overall disruption of a player's whole set of playing markers or chips if the paper table cover is inadvertently disrupted. Nor in the present practice of the game can one or more cards be shifted or interchanged to some new, more-advantageous, fixedly-held position.
In the current art of Bingo game play when too much glue is applied to the cards or to the table paper the playing area may become unnecessarily messy. If too little glue is applied in only a few spots on the back of game cards, the cards may shift, curl, or otherwise cause interference with smooth, troublefree play of the game.
The use of pressure-sensitive tapes such as those marketed by 3M Company, St. Paul, Minn. to affix the game cards avoids most of the inadvertent misplacement during play of the game but is an expensive means for avoiding this problem, as the tape is not reusable. A disadvantage if the player wants to rearrange the game cards is that the cards remain permanently affixed.
In the patent granted to Nemec, U.S. Pat. No. 2,784,973, there is disclosed a novel game board for using more-or-less stiff, lightweight Bingo game cards of the type commonly used in playing parlor-type games of Bingo. No provision is disclosed for holding the game cards in place, or for using modern, disposable Bingo sheets printed on thin sheets of paper such as newsprint. And because the design is cumbersome, no more than six game cards could be accommodated, making this invention useless to the modern, large volume Bingo player.
In Taylor, U.S. Pat. No. 2,872,215, a Bingo card holder is disclosed to be made of flexible folded plastic with pouches into which Bingo cards can be inserted. While this patent claims simplicity of construction, it requires numerous small parts to form the pouches, stiffeners to prevent curl of the plastic, and frictional members in the pouches to hold the cards in place. In addition, each fold increases the thickness of the holder, making it unwieldy in the extreme.
This invention relates to solutions to the problems raised by these devices and methods.